Household security
Help families manage risk, protect essential wellbeing and build a stronger base for future choices.
Programme 02 · Lesotho & Africa
Socio-Economic Empowerment and Resilient Livelihoods
Economic empowerment is more than income. It is the capacity to make choices, withstand shocks, participate in markets and build a future without sacrificing dignity or safety.
Livelihood pathways◆Women’s economic power◆Youth opportunity◆Social protection◆Financial inclusion◆Climate-smart livelihoods◆Household resilience◆Livelihood pathways◆Women’s economic power◆Youth opportunity◆Social protection◆Financial inclusion◆Climate-smart livelihoods◆Household resilience◆
Why this work matters
A livelihood must create room for agency—not merely survival.
People do not experience economic vulnerability as a single lack of money. It appears as interrupted education, insecure work, unpaid care, weak market access, climate pressure, unsafe migration, limited finance and difficult choices between today’s needs and tomorrow’s prospects.
CDSJ works across these connected realities. We combine practical livelihood pathways with financial capability, social protection, market relationships, climate resilience and stronger institutions so that households can move from recurring crisis toward greater security and choice.
Economic agency
Strengthen skills, confidence, finance and market participation so people can shape their own trajectories.
Enabling conditions
Work with institutions and partners on the barriers that keep opportunity unequal or difficult to sustain.
The change pathway
Move from chronic vulnerability toward security, participation and agency.
We link near-term livelihood opportunities with the relationships, institutional pathways and adaptive capacity people need to withstand shocks and grow on fairer terms.
Listen
Begin with lived experience, local knowledge, risks and strengths.
Act
Co-design practical responses with communities and capable partners.
Strengthen
Improve the people, pathways and institutions that must endure.
Learn & influence
Use evidence and reflection to improve practice and shape fairer systems.
Programme architecture
Six workstreams that connect people to opportunity
Our approach recognises that livelihoods are systems. Skills, finance, care responsibilities, climate, markets, protection and public policy all shape whether an opportunity can become a durable pathway.
01Livelihood pathways, employability and transition to work+
Support practical skills, career exposure, entrepreneurship readiness, mentoring and connections that help young people and excluded adults move toward dignified work and productive activity.
02Women’s economic power and fairer participation+
Address the financial, social, care-related and safety barriers affecting women’s economic choices while strengthening leadership, enterprise and control over productive resources.
03Social protection, graduation pathways and household resilience+
Connect immediate support with savings, capabilities, referrals, livelihood planning and institutional pathways that can help households progress beyond repeated crisis.
04Climate-resilient rural livelihoods and agrifood systems+
Strengthen livelihood options that reflect Lesotho’s rural realities, climate pressures and the need for locally viable, environmentally responsible production and value chains.
05Financial inclusion, market access and enterprise growth+
Build financial capability, savings and lending practice, enterprise support, market information and partnerships that allow viable activities to develop beyond subsistence.
06Resilience to social and economic shocks+
Help communities and institutions anticipate, absorb and adapt to disruptions without forcing households into harmful coping strategies or reversing hard-won progress.
Who must be centred
Put excluded potential at the centre of economic design.
We prioritise people whose capability is too often underestimated and whose access to opportunity is constrained by geography, gender, age, disability, care responsibilities or recurring shocks.
- Women and girls
- Young people entering work or enterprise
- Rural and peri-rural households
- Social-protection participants
- Informal workers and micro-entrepreneurs
- Climate- and shock-exposed communities
Connected work
What this looks like in practice
Protection · livelihoods
Supporting child-headed households as whole families
The project connects savings and livelihoods with school retention, protection, psychosocial wellbeing and legal support.
Explore this work →
Youth agency · resilience
Hope Over Hustle
A prevention-led model connecting mentorship, opportunity, community resilience and safer pathways for young people.
Explore this work →The difference we seek
More than activity: pathways people can continue to use.
We seek changes that outlast a training cycle—greater household resilience, safer and more equitable participation, stronger economic relationships and institutions better able to support progression.
Explore evidence & resources →- ✓People better equipped to move toward dignified work, enterprise and productive livelihoods
- ✓Women with stronger economic agency, participation and control over decisions
- ✓Households using savings, planning and support pathways to manage risk more effectively
- ✓Improved links between skills, finance, markets, mentorship and institutional support
- ✓Livelihood strategies better adapted to climate and economic shocks
- ✓Stronger evidence about what helps people progress and what keeps them excluded
Partner with purpose
Back locally led pathways from vulnerability to durable agency.
CDSJ welcomes partners who want livelihoods work to be grounded, integrated and measurable—connecting household realities with market opportunity, inclusion and resilient local systems.
Livelihood and enterprise pathways
Co-design programmes that combine capability, mentorship, finance, market access and appropriate protection.
Public, private and community actors
Create relationships that turn isolated support into functioning pathways for work, enterprise and resilience.
Pilots with growth potential
Develop and evaluate context-responsive models that can improve, adapt and scale responsibly.